


Past, Present, Future

by monolade



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Brief mentions of PTSD, Gen, Parenthood, a bit sad but ends on a hopeful note!!!, basically a view at younger!din dealing up until end of s1, brief mentions of survivor guilt, favreau and filoni give us more flashbacks of pre-S1 mando please!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28747950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monolade/pseuds/monolade
Summary: The Mythosaur pendant that Din Djarin wears is a memorial to his past, present, and future.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Past, Present, Future

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by @tiffdawg on Tumblr :) short drabble, really wish Disney/Lucasfilm will give us more insight into pre-show Din but alas~ maybe in the future.

The first thing Din says after a week of silence is that he wants to go home. He knows home is gone, but he wants to go back, and is unwilling to accept that he could be anywhere but in Aq Vetina, surrounded by beautiful hangings, red for the Harvest God, the scent of berry tea in the air. 

The Mandalorian healer tells him he is in shock, and that it is too dangerous to return home, home is now here, with the Mandalorians and the other foundlings. Din never says another word, just dully repeats “I want to go home.” He doesn’t eat, and barely sleeps, dreams awash with red blaster fire. The healer takes pity on him, and convinces the scouting team to let Din accompany them back to Aq Vetina. “It may help bring this Foundling some closure,” she says.

He wanders through his shell shocked house, empty, kettle still on the stove as if his father could walk in any time to make tea and sabaac on the table from when his mother was playing with the neighbors. Red is everywhere, in his old clothing, the tapestries on the wall, the color of his fathers favorite tea. 

He hates the color red now. 

Mutely, he wanders into his parents quarters. There’s still a dress on the bed, as if his mother was contemplating between two, and set one aside for now- she was always in a rush after all. His father always said Din took after his mom, they were both impatient and brash, taking on more than they could handle. 

“It’s time to go,” the Mandalorian says, “the structure is unsafe, it can collapse at any moment.”

Din wishes that it would, and that it would take him with it. 

The Mandalorian adds, “You have to live, for them”.

Din doesn’t even know what that means. His grief turns into anger. 

—

When he is of age the Mandalorians assign him to the Fighting Corps. Din isn’t the best fighter by any metric, but he does have a bit of a death wish and that makes him dangerous, unpredictable. The training gives him structure, something to look forward to, inside, he’s just numb. 

The day he swore the Creed, the day the Armorer became the last person to see his face, Din hands her two things in addition to the Beskar he had procured, the spoils from his final trial. He places his father’s necklace, and his mother’s ring, the last reminders of his life before on the forge in front of him, his face bathed in the red light cast by the fire. There were no bodies to recover, so he couldn’t give his parents a proper burial. Din has been carrying the jewelry around for as long as he could, but after several near-losses, he needs something new. He’s beginning a new chapter in his life, and he wants to insure that his parents are with him in a way, keep their memory alive somehow. 

The Armorer has a gift for understanding, and she nods. “I will fold these in with the last of your beskar.” 

She returns and hands him a pendant. The Mythosaur, symbol of all Mandalorians, a reminder of the Creed and their ancestors, past, present, and future. Ancestors which include his mother and father. A reminder that although he is a Mandalorian, he is also Din Djarin, and that he had family who loved him, and family that continue to care for him. He is the sum of all of those things. 

“This is The Way,” she says simply as he turns it over in his hand, thanking her before fastening it onto a cord. 

— 

Over time, the anger becomes a dull ache. He’s not special, there are countless others like him, orphans of the Clone Wars, the Empire, it’s all the same. He knows he’s lucky to be under the care of the Mandalorians. He dives into his work, doing what he can to help the Covert, one tracking fob at a time and if he’s lucky, beskar for the foundlings. 

In moments of stillness, he wonders if he’ll ever not be heartbroken. 

—

Din knows he’s dying. Rationally, it makes sense. There’s a head wound. All this fucking red everywhere. His blood, the fire, the wine on the counter, red red red. He can feel himself panicking, once again the small boy on Aq Vetina. He can hear blaster fire outside, and Cara is shouting at him, but he can’t hear a thing. 

He knows he’s dying but his thoughts are not of himself, but rather the Child. As he presses his necklace to Cara’s hand, he wonders if this is how his parents felt in the end. Cognizant of their fate, putting it all on the line so that Din might see another day. For the first time, he understands why his parents did what they did. In the heat of the fire on Nevarro, as he bleeds out, Din forgives them for letting him go, and he forgives himself for surviving without them. 

When Din finally convinces Cara to leave him and he can hear her footsteps fade in the distance, he leans back, feeling oddly at peace. He may not have earned his signet or ever figured out where the Child came from but he knows he’s safe. He knows he bought him another day and if that was all the fates had in store for this brown-eyed boy from Aq Vetina, he’s okay with that. 

The IG unit looks at him, and its eyes are red too. Red bookmarking his death on Aq Vetina, his Mandalorian rebirth, and death again.

— 

Against all odds, Din survives.

The Child, ever oblivious to the danger they had just escaped, plays with the pendant as Din prepares the Crest for takeoff. It’s fitting that Din passes it on to him; it contains Din’s past, present, and future all in one piece of beskar, a tiny genealogy of Clan Djarin. 

“Why don’t you hang on to this,” Din says, folding the pendant back into the Child’s hand. 

As he watches the stars streak into hyperspace, Din Djarin sleeps, and is reborn again, this time as a father.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to say hi @gondowan on Tumblr.


End file.
